Submission Minor Project

Minor Project

The Cemetery of Forgotten Books

The Making of The Round Hall

Digital Animation 

Minor Project Update

The digital set I made is a simple walkthrough camera which helps me cheat a bit with time editing in After Effects. It is not necessary to render enourmous amount of frames to achieve result which I can do in After effects. For this reason I used few effects.

Firstly, I applied a Time Stretch to my layer and increased the % to fit my desired time. Important note is to turn on the Frame Blending so we have a smooth frame transition. Because of the amount of rendered frame, I had to make it even smoother but avoid the chopping frame transition. For this reason I applied Time Wrap effect and keyed the amount I want it wrapped. I increased the speed to compensate the time stretching I applied previously. In my case, chosing Pixel Motion worked best although still some transition issues appeared

Also rendering adjustment layers and effects in After Effects takes ages. So to save time I rendered my sequences with the effects separately as Window Media Player format which reduces the file size but keeps the quality as good.  Then I imported them in the Main final composition which I rendered Lossless. I noticed that if I do not render the sequences seperately it takes more than 5 hours to render all the effects including light rays, otherwise it takes 7 minutes for the final composition.

Minor Project Update

The Cemetery of Forgotten Books
a digital set design by Antonina Peneva based on the novel
‘The Shadow of the Wind’ by Carlos Ruis Zafon

When I first read The Shadow of the Wind I instantly fall in love with the book. The style, the atmosphere, the characters, the twisted plot, the time travelling were all in perfect proportions. So easilly digested was it all as if merging into the story and becoming another character hidden in the shadows as an invisible witness was something natural. After that I could not resist the tempation but read The Prisoner of Heaven and the Angle’s Game. These ‘epic films on paper’ are stories that leave traces in your soul long after you put the book back on the shelf to collect another dose of dust. So natural was the idea to recreate one of the many enigmatic places in this book such as The Cemetery of Fogotten Books.

There are many scenes in this book worth bringing alive as digital sets. The one this project involves is the massive, gloomy and mysterious library or The Cemetery of Forgotten Books. Zafon presents the audience with three sectoins of this building: the entrance, the round hall and the corridor full of bookshelves where Daniel searches for his book.

The original idea of this project was to create a complicated three scene animation as a walkthrough showing around this ancient building. But the time and complexity of this scene left me with no choice but cut the other two scenes and focus on two different camera position showing only one of the scenes: The Round Hall.

Here is a final render of Camera 1 and 2 image sequences with some Photoshop adjustments.

Because adding all these coloour adjustmens manually to each sequence will take eternity, I added these filters to After Effects. I added adjustment layers to my Composition using Colour Balance, Mask for the edge shadowing, Selective Colour, auto Contrast and of course LightBurst for the light rays. To the latter I added animated Fractial Noise to get that particle effect in the air. Here are some screenshots of the workflow.

Pre-Viz

This is my base for the animation. Few notes on this one:
 - I recorded my voice. This is a paragraph from the book in spanish and then added an echo effect to it.
- I should add 'novel' by Carlos Zafon, something I noticed later.
- The music background is The_Tudor_Consort_-_Giovanni_Animuccia_-_Kyrie but I am still working on a version that is eligible for such project. This piece of choral music is free from http://freemusicarchive.org/genre/Choral_Music/
- The renders aren't the best quality but explain how the camera guide us through each scene. Of course it is faster than the real animation but this will come later in production.
- The final scene is static but with animated light which will come later in production.

That's it for now. Time to start texturing and put some light.

Minor Project Modelling Screeshots

And finally scene 3 - work in progress. I had quite a headache with this scene. Because of its complexity I did a little bit of a google research and found out a way to navigate the scene using Assembly Definitions. The screen shots show the cache representations only. Also, putting the geometry to work in perspective was quite a challange but I believe it is as closest as possible to my concept. And now it is time to polish my modelling and put it together into a pre-viz.

Minor Project Modelling Screenshots

Here are few screenshots on my progress with the modelling of two of my three scenes.

Scene 01 - The Entrance
This is a simple architectural interior which has a bent staircase with roman railing, medieval gates and wall columns which are my interpretation of Corinthian style. The dome is simple and will feature fresco texture.

  

Below are some reference images I have used for the modelling.

Scene 02 - The Round Hall

This is more crowded scene and includes the same styles: Corinthian columns, medieval gates and roman railing. The bookcases are not dominant because they are an introduction to scene three - Library Section. It is a gradual build up of complexity and styles.

And here are some reference images. A very useful resource of architectural styles is The Five Order, a book by Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola from 1562. Below is a flat projection of the main columns. The have an attached staircases. The column style in my scene is a combination of Doric and Compound Style, the latter commonly found in medieval churches.

Minor Project SFX

As an addition to my minor project final piece (whatever it comes at the end) there will be sound. Here are my choices:

For the first time since the Sistine Chapel was built, the Pope finally allowed the Sistine Chapel Choir (active since 1471) to record professionally Miserere by the Italian composer Gregorio Allegri. I heard this one on Classic FM few weeks ago and knew straight away it will complement my scenes. The acoustic is extremely hypnotizing. This is just an extract from the whole piece.

I was thinking to add also whispers like those in TV Series Lost, so here is an example. I think those whispers represent all those souls imprisoned in the books from my scenes. Taken from http://www.freesound.org/people/qubodup/sounds/194628/



Creepy isn't it?

Minor Project Presentation

Minor Project Presentation

Minor Project Library Section and Round Hall Concepts

Last two concepts. I used a different technique for the other images that is why these two are so different in style.

Round Hall

Library Section

Minor Project Entrance Hall & Palatial Corridor concepts

Concept Time:

Entrance Hall v.1

Entrance Hall v.2

Palatial Corridor

@ Phil Minor Project Sketches

As time is a shortage when it comes to my lifestyle, I decided to upload the sketches just to show an idea of what the scenes will be. Concepts are coming too shortly.

From all read and wrote so far, I am making 4 concept images that will work as a base for my models and renders:
1. the entrance: "...sinuous contours of a marble staircase and gallery of frescoes peopled with angles and fabulous creatures."
2. the palatial corridor that leads to...
3. the sprawling round hall
4. Library section

Entrance 1

Entrance 2 Note below.

Round hall

Palatial corridor

Library section

Note: my sketches are inspired by the following images. Phil, I am concerned that the adaptation isn't dramatic and the scenes are too close to the originals. What do you think?

Palatial corridor

Library Section

Entrance

Minor Project Pre-production

The Shadow of the Wind

by Carlos Zafón

The Shadow of the Wind is a 2001 mystery book that takes us back to the late 1940's Barcelona. Despite the post war spirit, the story develops unaffected by the laws of time. People and events flow forwards and backwards in uncanny ways. Daniel Sempere is 10 years old when his father takes him to a mysterious place in the heart of Barcelona, a library called The Cemetery of Forgotten Books. Zafón depicts the building as "the carcass of a palace, a palace of echoes and shadows." In this labyrinthine library of obscure and forgotten titles imprisoned on the shelves, Daniel is given the chance to chose only one book and promise that he will keep it safe. His fingers stop on "The Shadow of the Wind" by Julian Carax. Since that moment, Daniel becomes involved in many mysterious situations that make him undertake an enchanted hunt for people and places connected with the book and its author. This turns the novel from 'literary curiosity' into a choking ambition to find who stays behind the name of Julian Carax. This 'epic film on paper,' is soaked with, mysterious characters, young love, lust, tragedy and torture, in the ever compelling noir style of Dumas.

There are many scenes in this book worth bringing alive as digital sets. The one this project involves is the massive, gloomy and mysterious library or:

"The Cemetery of Forgotten Books"

Here are some extracts from the book to help me understand the mood and shape of this interior:
• "carcass of a palace, a palace of echoes and shadows"
• "a blue-tinted gloom obscured the sinuous contours of a marble staircase and a gallery of frescoes peopled with angles and fabulous creatures.
• "... palatial corridor, ... , a sprawling round hall where a spiraling basilica of shadows was pierced by shafts of light from a high glass dome above us."
• "A labyrinth of passageways and crammed bookshelves rose from the base to pinnacle like a beehive, woven tunnels, steps, platforms and bridges that presaged an immense library of seemingly impossible geometry."
• "... sanctuary. Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul."
• "This place was already ancient, ..., perhaps as old as the city itself."
• "... hundreds, thousands of volumes."

REFERENCE / INSPIRATION

This is a fantasy photo realistic scene and as suggested by Phil, Piranesi's geometrically incongruous plans are a great example. I instantly fell for his fantasy Le Carceri (Prisons) and believe that it fits perfectly with the idea of the library as a prison for books. Good examples of occupation of space combined with romantic design. Piranesi's style is agglomeration of styles incl. Babylonian, Graeco-Roman, Renaissance and exotic inventions. As the library is an ancient building it will include elements from the above. Christian Thompsen explains Piranesi's style in Visionary Architecture as follows:

 "The Carceri,..., derive their aesthetic effect from the device known as

paradox: a simultaneity of opposites...Piranesi's visionary architecture is 

like the setting of a dream blown up to gigantic scale."

Giovanni Battista Piranesi:

Le Carceri

Veduta Interna del Panteon / neoclassicism

Le Carceri / 7th Plate / The Drawbridge, 1760

Le Carceri / 6th Plate / The Smoking Fire

"Library of Babel" by Erik Desmaziéres

"Library of Babel" by Erik Desmaziéres

Giuseppe Galli-Bibiena

Giuseppe Galli-Bibiena

"Library of Babel" by Erik Desmaziéres

Harry Potter and moving stairs

Maurits Cornelis Esher

The Library of Babel | Pierre Clayette

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